It's raining chief engineers in Karnataka

Arbitrary promotions have led to an embarrassing surfeit of chief engineers in Karnataka.

The state has about 2,600 engineers, from junior engineers to chief engineers, mostly recruited by the Public Works Department (PWD), which acted as the parent department.

In 2020, the government divided the engineers and sent them to the water resources department and the rural development and panchayat raj department, both of which had been demanding administrative control over them.

This soon led to a disproportionate ratio as the two departments promoted many engineers and created posts not sanctioned by the government.

According to cadre and recruitment rules, the three departments can together have 44 chief engineers. However, they have created 22 more, and three engineers have been languishing without any posting for eight months.

“On top of this, the PWD and the water resources department are in the process of promoting 30 superintending engineers as chief engineers,” a source told DH, adding that money and political considerations were playing a big role in the process.

That would add up to 96 engineers, as against the sanctioned 44. A senior engineer said the problem of random promotions was at least two decades old in the public works department, but an erroneous procedure followed in assigning engineers to the two other departments compounded it.

“The distribution was misused as a shortcut to gain quick promotions. In several instances, assistant engineers in the rural development department were promoted as assistant executive engineers within five years, while many who had worked for 15-20 years in other departments were still waiting for their promotions,” he said.

The PWD is left with 164 engineers who have managed to stay on despite efforts to send them to places where their services are required.

“In the backward districts of north Karnataka, several posts are lying vacant. But these are seen as punishment postings. Those who do go there repatriate in a matter of months,” another official said.

Anil Kumar, who recently took over as additional chief secretary, PWD, said the department had submitted a new file to the chief minister.

“Departmental bifurcation is a legacy problem that needs to be resolved to address promotions and ensure representation of engineers from the SC and ST communities. We have submitted a file to the chief minister to set right several anomalies,” he said.